one, a
well-fitted saddle, and care in packing will nearly always suffice. I
have gone months without having to doctor a single abrasion.

You will furthermore want a pack-cinch and a pack-rope for each horse.
The former are of canvas or webbing provided with a ring at one end and
a big bolted wooden hook at the other. The latter should be half-inch
lines of good quality. Thirty-three feet is enough for packing only;
but we usually bought them forty feet long, so they could be used also
as picket-ropes. Do not fail to include several extra. They are
always fraying out, getting broken, being cut to free a fallen horse,
or becoming lost.

Besides the picket-ropes, you will also provide for each horse a pair
of strong hobbles. Take them to a harness-maker and have him sew
inside each ankle-band a broad strip of soft wash-leather twice the
width of the band. This will save much chafing. Some advocate
sheepskin with the wool on, but this I have found tends to soak up
water or to freeze hard. At least two loud cow-bells with neck-straps
are handy to assist you in locating whither the bunch may have strayed
during the night. They should be hung on the loose horses most
inclined to wander.

Accidents are common in the hills. The repair-kit is normally rather
comprehensive. Buy a number of extra latigos, or cinch-straps.
Include many copper rivets of all sizes--they are the best quick-repair
known for almost everything, from putting together a smashed
pack-saddle to cobbling a worn-out boot. Your horseshoeing outfit
should be complete with paring-knife, rasp, nail-set, clippers, hammer,
nails, and shoes. The latter will be the malleable soft iron,
low-calked "Goodenough," which can be fitted cold. Purchase a dozen
front shoes and a dozen and a half hind shoes. The latter wear out
faster on the trail. A box or so of hob-nails for your own boots, a
waxed end and awl, a whetstone, a file, and a piece of buckskin for
strings and patches complete the list.

Thus equipped, with your grub supply, your cooking-utensils, your
personal effects, your rifle and your fishing-tackle, you should be
able to go anywhere that man and horses can go, entirely self-reliant,
independent of the towns.

III

ON HORSES

I really believe that you will find more variation of individual and
interesting character in a given number of Western horses than in an
equal number of the average men one meets on the street. Their whole
e